Running head: ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES 1

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES

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ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES 2

Introduction

While a mature individual is capable to perceive the surrounding and has a stable sense

of self, there is also an opportunity for one to observe the other as existing separately with its

own unique mind and sense of self. Such maturity includes an availability to manage one’s

emotional states, enjoying intimate relationships and being separate and alone. The wide

variety of psychoanalytic schools have paid their attention on the aspects of the process of

psychic development, in particular examining the interaction of mother, father and other

caregivers with the child’s natural availabilities that are able to shape one’s personality. These

are the interactions form the child’s conscious and unconscious perceptions of the environment.

The researchers of psychoanalysts see development as a progress of capacities that have

relation with the changes in the subjective experience. Notwithstanding the fact that all

psychoanalytic traditions perceive individuals as complex products of nature and nurture, there

are also followers of the natural factors that impact the development and are also concerned

about the understanding of environmental influences (Milton, Polmear & Fabricius, 2011). There

are four major psychoanalytic theories of such development. These are the theories of Freud,

Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott. The following paper will illustrate the main

theories of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, particularly Klein’s theory of object relations and

projective identification and Winnicott’s theory false self, true self and theory of the parent-infant

relationship. Further it will illustrate the critical analysis of the two theories and their impact on

the field of psychoanalysis.

Theories of Donald Winnicott and Melanie Klein

Donald Winnicott, a child psychiatrist ad psychoanalyst developed his theories with the

emphasis on the maternal environment and the emergence of self. His focus on the external

world experience of development and on the transitional surrounding makes his theory to
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operate in parallel with the phenomenological perspective of Klein’s of the internal world with the

instinctive and symbolic levels of experience. Melanie Klein was the first psychoanalytic theorist

who followed Freud’ views. Her theory of paranoid-schizoid and depressive position experience

is formulated in terms of self- integration and the separation individualization. Winnicott’s

aspects of external world, such as holding the environment and the development of facilitating

functions interact with the Klein’s ideas in self- development. These functions are the subjective

object, the maternal mirroring that enable one to build the sense of self for self-development and

the transitional phenomena. The intersubjuctive area of Winnicott’s transitional space operates

along with the paranoid and depressive phantasies of internal world that Klein investigates. In

such case, the mature development evolves prioritization of what is inside and outside. Such

interaction between Winnicott’s and Klein’s worlds involves the lines of theoretical contrast

between the two theories of researchers (Kavaler-Adler, 2014).

Winnicott’s theory of the parent-infant relationship

To examine the parent-infant relationship theory there is a need to divide into the earliest

stages of infant and maternal care that belong to each other and cannot be disentangled. One

half of the theory concerns about the infant and explains infant from the point of view of its

journey from absolute dependence, through relative dependence, to independence, from the

pleasure principle to the reality principle and from autoerotism to object relationships. The other

part of the parent-infant relationship theory is the concern about the maternal care or about the

qualities and changes in the mother that meets specific and developing needs of its child

towards which one orientates (Winnicott, 1960). While the key word of the first part of the

theory is the dependence, it means that human infants are not able to exercise any activities

without adult assistance and under certain conditions. However, these conditions do not

determine the infant's potential. Being in the state of absolute dependence and having no

knowing about the maternal care, an infant cannot gain control over what is well or what is bad.
ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES 4

However, one is only in the position to obtain profit or to suffer disturbance. Speaking about the

relative dependence, here the infant can obtain knowledge about the need for the details of

maternal care and is able to relate these details to personal impulse and then in a psycho-

analytic treatment, reproducing them in the transference. With the ability of infant to develop

means for doing without actual care, one actually accomplishes through gathering of memories

of care, the projection of personal needs and the introjection of care details, developing

confidence in the surrounding world. The infant obtains element of intellectual understanding

and here a word is used to introduce a full development of the theme. The actual state is that an

infant is not separated with mother out of self at the beginning and exists in absolute

dependence from the psychological sense. At this level an infant needs to obtain the

environmental provision that meets physiological needs. Physiology and psychology here have

not yet become separate and are in the process of doing so. Since the environmental provision

is not mechanically, it is reliable in a way that assumes the mother's empathy toward a child.

Maternal care and infants ability to perceive it can be viewed from the point of holding protects

from physiological insult. It is important here to consider all the factors such as infant's skin

sensitivity or the impact of touch, auditory and visual sensitivity and also infant's lack of

knowledge about the existence of anything other than the self. Mothers who provide good

enough care for their children are enabled to do better by being cared for themselves.

Winnicott’s theory of false self and true self

Winnicott’s false self describes the defensive formation of the infant and child that is a

result of inadequate mothering or failures in empathy. While an infant or a child experiences

maternal disregard or emotional neglect, the infant is forced to gather one own needs to the

conscious and unconscious needs of those whom he or she is dependent. Winnicott considers

that the infant's amenability is the first and earliest stage of the false self that belongs to the

mother's inability to sense her infant's needs. The false self develops as the result of rejections
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or abandoning experience which that infant or a child has in life. The growing child loses one’s

sense of initiative and spontaneity because there is a growing sense of idleness and despair

connected with the experience obtained in the early childhood (Daehnert,1998). The theory of a

false self is balanced by a true self, a theoretical position from which come the spontaneous

gesture and the personal idea. The spontaneous gesture here wakes the true self into action

and helps the child to be creative and feel real. Whether the true self feels real, the false self

arises a feeling of unreal or a sense of futility. The False Self, if successful in its function, hides

the True Self, or else finds a way of enabling the True Self to start to live. The outcome of when

the true self is hiding behind the false self can be achieved by all manner of means, however, it

is observed that most closely those instances appear during a treatment. The true self comes

primarily from the aliveness of the body and its functions, which are the heart's action, breathing

and are the essential for external stimuli. The false self hides behind the infant's inner reality

and it also hides the true self. According to the theory of false self and true self, it formulated the

concept of an individual inner reality of objects used on a stage later than the concept of what

the true self is. With the appearance of mental organization, the true self occurs as well,

bringing the meaning of little more than the total sensori-motor vitality. Every new period of living

brings a growing capacity of breaking in continuity of true self living. It also brings the reactive or

false self experiences that are related to the surrounding based on the compliance (Winnicott,

1965).

Klein theory of object relations

The term object is used by scholars when they refer to the external person who is

observable or the inner object. Such inner object can be the mental representation of the actual

observable person. Without distinguishing the object, it brings confusions. Thus, Melanie Klein,

a psychoanalyst, uses this term without specifying whether it refers to the actual person or inner

representation of a person (Claire, 1996). However, object is the inner world of mental
ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES 6

representations that is paid much attention among the psychoanalysts and is how a subject of

representation of the under- stands and relationships that enable a therapist to realize what is a

subject's behavior and motivation. While a therapist receives information about the internal

object relations of a particular person, the conclusions are also done y means of one’s feelings

and established relationships. Object relations are discussed in a variety of ways, however in

general, they trend away from Freud's discussion of object in terms of instincts. Melanie Klein

was the first who revised Freud's model by paid more attention to the interpersonal environment

as a determining factor that influences the developing of personality. She learned much about

the role for the instinctual drives while viewing trans- actions between the infant and its objects

in terms of transformed incitements and drives represented by phantasy. The infant has a much

deeper and more immediate relation to others. Klein depicted the objects of human passion as

phantasmagoric creations that were not connected with the outside world. Moreover, she

pointed on the importance of real others. The well- known Klein’s formulations concerning the

objects is their inherent and created connection of the drives that are independent from real

others in the external world. Besides, there is also an explanation of the inherent objects since

they involve the earliest channeling of the death instinct and should be taken more attention if

the infant is to survive (Mitchell, 1981).

Klein theory of projective identification

The other theory examined by Klein was the projective identification, which was

developed as the intra-psychic and interpersonal phenomenon. It draws the analyst into various

forms of acting out. In order to illustrate the ways in which the projective identification has he

analytic relationship, the focus should be placed on using interpretation to change the mutual

acting and mutual understanding (Waska, 1999). Melanie Klein introduced projective

identification as hatred that was directed toward the mother and against parts of the self. Such

formation leads to the particular form of identification, a prototype of aggressive object-relation.

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Projective identification has been redefined by many scholars. Klein paid much attention to the

relationship of the primitive defense of projective identification that involved loving and hateful

feelings with the affects they make on the client. Projective identification involves not only

chaotic and uncontrolled emotions. It sometimes occurs that one is unable to manage own

positive accepted qualities because of the feeling of fear, guilt or envy. However, by impelling

the projected experience, one is more able to avoid negative reality. Despite the fact that such

occurs continually in all of our relational interactions, it is in the therapeutic relationship that can

bring to the fore and explore more fully the individual to become more aware and change the

inadequate behaviors and learn how to relate in clearer and more conscious ways (Connell,

2011).

Critical analysis of Klein and Winnicott’s theories

Klein’s contributions are considered a controversial and her figure have still influenced

psychoanalysis greatly. Klein used the term object with a dual meaning, applying to the external

figure and to its internalized psychic representation. Since she was working on theories that

explored the world of children, she considered there existed an infant who lived side by side

with the relations to real objects. However, these relations were also based on the unreal

images, both good and bad. There are certain advantages of examining her influence on

relational approaches while there are a number of relevant concepts. Among them, Winnicott’s

stress on subjectivity and the mother-infant connection that is most relevant because of their

direct association with objective ideas. Winnicott utilizes the concept of self as the central

through his work. There is a possibility to develop a healthy self when it is achieved by the

appropriate developmental process that evolves the mother's ability to establish a responsive

attitude toward child’s needs (Mascialino, 2008).

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While Freud saw human beings as those driven by powerful instincts, Winnicott had

confidence in the discovering of the developmental process that would give the opportunity to

produce moral awareness of early struggles. He also believed that development usually goes

well and that mothers are usually good enough to perform their mothering duties. Moreover,

they are on mind of their children from early years and serve to meet the child’s needs well.

While the infant is small, it cannot perceive mother as a definite object and thus cannot have

full-fledged emotions toward her. Its world is considered narcissistic basically. However, with the

rime passing, the infant develops the ability to be alone, but assisted with the transitional

objects, such as blankets and toy animals (Rodman, n.d.). The child then develops the ability to

play alone in the presence of one’s mother, which shows the important step in growing

confidence and in developing self. Later, the child starts to relate to the mother as a person but

not as the producer of needs. Klein considered infants to start their lives with an linear

inclination to decrease the anxiety experienced as a consequence of the clash between the life

and death instincts. She considered very young infants spent active and unconscious fantasy

life with the basic fantasies and images of good breast or bad breast. Klein have agreed with

Winnicott emphasizing the child's relationship with such objects as parents' faces and hands

(Feist, 2014). Like Klein, Winnicott assumed that child understood that it is the same person

whom it loves and whom it directed aggressive behaviors, if one’s needs are not met. However,

instead of Klein's forbidding concept of the depressive position, Winnicott establishes

connections between the insight of the developing capacity for concern, illustrating how moral

feeling is achieved itself out of the child's love toward its mother and the knowledge that such

aggression projects harm. At the same time, he recognized morality in operating along with

love, but not acting as a forbidding set of observed paternal demands. He paid much attention

the role of the imagination through developing the capacity of the child to imagine its mother's

feelings and becoming more capable to act generously and reparatively. Winnicott assumed

that throughout this development, it is important for the mother to be able to provide the child
ANALYSIS OF KLEIN AND WINNICOTT THEORIES 9

with the assisting environment that would allow it to express itself, despite the moments of

destructiveness or hate (Milton, Polmear & Fabricius, 2011). Since the work of Klein strongly

influenced Winnicott, he has accepted many of her ideas and thinking, especially those with

regard to the internal world, objects and fantasy. The only few distinguish between the ideas of

Klein and Winnicott were the effect of environmental provision and emphasis on the importance

of early real relationships. Moreover, Winnicott did not pay much attention on the libido in the

object relations theory, however, he focused more on the development of the self object out of

the relationship between child and mother (Naismith & Grant, 2007).

Conclusion

The development in the field of psychoanalysis has brought the important changes in the

psychoanalytic theories and practices (Beebe & Lachmann, 2003). Relational approaches

operate between intra-psychic and interpersonal levels. These explanations consider the

presence of a private inner life that is focusing on internal processes such as fantasy, desires

and unconscious motivations. Interpersonal explanations also focus on transactions with others

and pay more attention to the relationships and participation in the social realm (Kavaler-Adler,

2014). Winnicott retreated from psychoanalytic concepts such as the death drive made by

Freud, envy and jealousy by Klein and emptiness, lack and desire of Lacan. However, he has

developed his concepts in order to understand and explain the realities of life which was

attributed to the identification with an image of the ideal mother that leads to the idealization of a

family life. 
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References

Beebe, B., & Lachmann, F. (2003). The Relational Turn in Psychoanalysis: A Dyadic

Systems View from Infant Research, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 39(3)

Claire, M. (1996). Object Relations and Self Psychology: An Introduction (2nd Edition). Pacific

Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole

Connell, B., (2011). Understanding Projective Identification in Psychotherapy, Irish Association

of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, Retrieved from http://iahip.org/inside-

out/issue-63-spring-2011/understanding-projective-identification-in-psychotherapy

Daehnert,C., (1998). The False Self as a Means of Disidentification: A Psychoanalytic Case

Study, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 34:251-271

Feist, (2014). Theories of personality, Object Relations Theory, McGraw-Hill Education

Kavaler-Adler, S., (2014). The Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: Transformative New Metapsychology

and Interactive Clinical Theory, Karnac Books

Mascialino, G., (2008). A Critical Appraisal of Relational Approaches to Psychoanalysis, The

University of Texas at Austin

Milton, J., Polmear, C. & Fabricius, J. (2011). A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis, SAGE

Mitchell, S., (1981). The Origin and Nature of the Object in the Theories of Klein and Fairbairn,

Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Vol. 17, No. 3

Naismith, J. & Grant, S., (2007). Seminars in the Psychotherapies, RCPsych Publications

Rodman, R., (n.d.). Winnicott: Life and Work, Retrieved from

http://www.ctp.net/PDFs/winnicott.pdf
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Waska, R., (1999). Projective Identification, Countertransference, and the Struggle for

Understanding Over Acting Out, The Journal of psychotherapy practice and research,

8(2): 155–161

Winnicott, D.W. (1960). The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship, International Journal of

Psycho-Analysis, 41:585-595

Winnicott, D.W. (1965). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies

in the Theory of Emotional Development, The International Psycho-Analytical Library,

64:1-276. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis,